Fort Myers leads Gulf Coast

In another indicator, it appears the Cape Coral-Fort Myers real estate market is leading the housing recovery on the Gulf Coast.

February data from researcher CoreLogic show that, year-over-year, the rate of foreclosures and delinquent mortgages fell fastest in Cape Coral-Fort Myers compared with the other markets on the Gulf Coast. Foreclosure rates increased slightly in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater market, while they decreased in the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota and Cape Coral-Fort Myers markets.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers market saw the largest drop in the foreclosure rate among outstanding mortgage loans in February, with a 2.54% decrease from February 2011 to a rate of 10.01%. Its delinquency rate — the percentage of mortgage loans delinquent 90 or more days — has also decreased during that time. It was 15.91% in February, compared with 19.10% the same month in 2011, a change of 3.19%.